1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an access security system, and in particular to such systems for controlling access to gated communities.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been a conventional practice to provide a guard at an entrance to a gated community to control the entrance of residents and guests. However, such a guarded community entrance system suffers from several drawbacks.
First, such a system is often very expensive to operate because the cost of maintaining a guard at all entrances to a gated community can be very high. Furthermore, the security of such a gated community is dependent on the work attitude and reliability of the guards. Because security guards are paid relatively low salaries, turnover and absenteeism are high and continuity of high performance standards is rare. Thus, the overall quality of any guard-based, access control system is limited by the performance of its weakest guard personnel.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a novel access security system in a gated community in order to overcome the drawbacks in conventionally guarded communities.
A more specific objective of the present invention is to provide a novel access security system for a gated community in which guards are no longer needed so that a low cost and efficient operation can be achieved.
A further feature of the present invention is to provide enhanced features at an entrance to a gated community, such as visual monitoring, storing of monitored data, and the like.